Tiger Guards

Chapter 569 The Oath of the White Horse
Meanwhile, at the front lines, after Zhao Ji held several hunts with representatives of the powerful clans of Youzhou, these clansmen were clearly impressed by Zhao Ji's archery skills.

Especially for figures like Gongsun Zan and Xianyu Fu, who could gather tens of thousands of Han and Hu allied troops, encountering Zhao Ji on the battlefield would be extremely difficult.

Small-scale battles are like hunting. Zhao Ji rides past, and within a radius of sixty or seventy paces centered on Zhao Ji, wild beasts hardly need a second arrow.

If this applies to wild beasts, then it also applies to elite armored cavalry and soldiers; it's impossible for Gongsun Zan and Xianyu Fu to wear three layers of armor.

This means that once the battle begins, once Zhao Ji gets within a certain range of them, they will definitely be the first to be shot down!

In positional battles, Zhao Ji and his skilled archer cavalry were particularly troublesome.

This means that if neither side's main force moves, their elite troops will be wiped out by Zhao Ji and his cavalry in small skirmishes with a huge casualty ratio!

Elite troops couldn't hold them off, and ordinary troops, being human too, couldn't hold out for long either.

Besides, abandoning positional warfare and going straight to a decisive battle... that's even worse.

From the moment Zhao Ji enlisted in the Tiger Warriors, whether in wars he spearheaded or in the Battle of Chenliu Bianshui where he was forced to fight, Zhao Ji's fighting style was extremely fierce.

They never hold back in battles; if they can defeat you within a day, they will never hold back and will not engage in any stalemate.

Therefore, while it's impossible to precisely summarize Zhao Ji's advantages in this kind of decisive battle strategy, actual battle examples are the most convincing.

Therefore, through several hunts, Zhao Ji deliberately displayed his skills, and Gongsun Zan and Xianyu Fu were already in despair.

The Youzhou cavalry had a slight advantage when facing the Jizhou infantry.

However, when facing Zhao Ji, Gongsun Zan could not find a suitable countermeasure, whether it was a large-scale or small-scale battle... unless he was trapped in Yijing and used logistics to wear down Zhao Ji's army.

As for arranging for dozens of elite soldiers to assassinate Zhao Ji, that was even more impossible.

There are too many examples of Zhao Ji fighting on the battlefield. When many wars were at a stalemate, it was Zhao Ji who personally led the charge to achieve a breakthrough.

The entire army knew that Zhao Ji was a 100-man killr in battle. This did not mean that Zhao Ji had accumulated a total of 100 kills since he joined the army, but rather that in a battle that required Zhao Ji's intervention, Zhao Ji's personal kill count would be around 100!

What limited Zhao Ji's ability to achieve significant results in battle was never his courage or combat skills, but rather the enemy's resilience and sheer numbers!

Do you think a few dozen elite soldiers can assassinate Zhao Ji?

Even more despairing was that Zhao Ji had repeatedly deflected crossbow bolts with a single sword strike in the heat of battle... These were short, powerful crossbow bolts with unpredictable flight trajectories, not arrows.

There are instances where Zhao Ji would catch arrows with his bare hands and deflect them back during battle, but he would avoid doing so whenever possible, as catching arrows and deflecting them back would be too time-consuming.

Unable to dodge in time, Zhao Ji preferred to use his armor to block the arrows before quickly firing them.

Unless you adopt the same force that Emperor Gaozu of Han used to besiege and kill Xiang Yu... you not only need a large army, but you also need to ensure that Zhao Ji doesn't have too many guards around him.

For example, it is difficult to ascertain whether the Han army could have successfully surrounded and killed Xiang Yu if he had been surrounded by more than a thousand elite cavalry.

Zhao Ji's bravery now far surpasses that of Xiang Yu, but perhaps another hero like Emperor Gaozu will emerge from the royal family.

Gongsun Zan, whose confidence had been severely damaged by Zhao Ji, could not imagine any way to defeat Zhao Ji. With Gongsun Zan's understanding of the morale of the army, even if Zhao Ji's nomadic army was routed.

As long as Zhao Ji can retreat alive to Yunzhong or Wuyuan, he can gather a large army at any time to launch a second eastern expedition.

Gongsun Zan not only understood the morale of the army, but also the ethnic characteristics of the Xianbei, Xiongnu, and Qiang people.

As long as Zhao Ji is alive, these nobles from various Hu tribes whose fathers, brothers, and relatives he killed will still rely on him even after their defeat!

Not to mention those who were subdued by Zhao Ji, even the heroes of Youzhou are soon to have this tendency.

Unlike Gongsun Zan, Xianyu Fu had a broader range of ideas, yet he remained desperate.

Because whenever Zhao Ji led troops into battle, he would not drink alcohol or indulge in women, and he would always wear his armor. He was always accompanied by at least 500 elite cavalrymen.

As long as Zhao Ji's army is nearby, with a reconnaissance range extending more than two hundred miles outward, who can surround and kill Zhao Ji, who is guarded by five hundred elite chariots and cavalry?
The hundreds of thousands of nomadic troops marching eastward were not the real threat; the real threat was Zhao Ji himself.

Xianyu Fu believed that even if Zhao Ji traveled alone, he was like a country in himself, so who wouldn't be afraid?
What makes a state terrifying is that if you break the rules, the state can kill you or exterminate your entire clan. So, even if Zhao Ji were to ride alone, he could still kill you and exterminate your clan!

Zhao Ji simply wanted to use a few hunting events, like the tiger-shooting competition with Sun Ce last year, to intimidate Sun Ce and warn him against any underhanded tactics.

He thinks the same way now; he doesn't want to be attacked from both sides by the Donghu Allied Forces and the Youji Allied Forces.

Once such a war breaks out, even if it is won, it will be meaningless.

He simply does not have the talent pool to take over Youzhou and Jizhou. Forcibly taking over would only dilute his control and could even lead to infiltration.

Therefore, it is necessary to demonstrate our deterrent power, not to intimidate every Han and Hu chieftain in Youzhou who participates in the hunt, but only to subdue a portion of them.

In this way, the powerful Han and Hu clans in Youzhou would not be able to unite to weave any grand conspiracy. Even if there were a grand conspiracy, if one of them informed on it, then all their efforts would not have been in vain.

The fewer people involved in a conspiracy, the greater its chances of success.

Military warfare has always been a game of numbers.

Just as Gongsun Zan was being subdued by Zhao Ji, he received a secret letter from Yuan Shao.

Seeing that the secret letter was perfectly sealed, Gongsun Zan felt a renewed urge to try it.

This messenger was Ren, a native of Zhuojun, who had followed Liu Bei since his youth. He could also be considered a junior of Gongsun Zan when Gongsun Zan was the magistrate of Zhuojun.

I wouldn't say we were very familiar with each other, but I knew of him and knew that Liu Bei had such a person under his command.

Whether it was Gongsun Zan, the magistrate of Zhuo County back then, who knew of Shi Ren, such a frivolous and proletarian rogue, or Gongsun Zan, the governor of Youzhou and former general of Ji, who knows of Shi Ren, an official in the General of Chariots and Cavalry's office, it is an honor for Shi Ren.

After much hesitation, Gongsun Zan, trusting Liu Bei, still knocked open the mud seal in front of Shi Ren and took out the silk book inside.

There are two silk scrolls in total. One was written by Liu Bei, who believed that Zhao Ji had been commanding troops in the field for a long time, had made outstanding achievements, and was arrogant and disrespectful to the emperor. Sooner or later, he would become a disaster for the survival of the Han dynasty.

Therefore, Liu Bei wanted to join forces with Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao to force Zhao Ji to take power in the court.

Gongsun Zan only sneered at Liu Bei's suggestion.

It's not that I look down on Liu Bei's ideas, but rather that Liu Bei actually harbored the idea of ​​supporting the emperor and reviving the Han dynasty.

Grand Marshal Zhao Ji has already demonstrated the negative impact of the "Oath of the White Horse" that "only Liu will be king."

The Oath of the White Horse certainly suppressed the birth and growth of kings and kingdoms of different surnames for the continuation of the Han dynasty, and prevented a situation similar to the Warring States period from occurring, such as the Rebellion of the Seven States.

At the same time, it also blocked the possibility of the Han emperor becoming the Zhou emperor.

If someone of a different surname could be granted the title of king, this dilemma wouldn't exist now.

Give Zhao Ji a kingdom with a slightly larger territory, and support some powerful kingdoms of different surnames and the same surname. These kingdoms will naturally integrate their internal resources and fight to the death with the Zhao Kingdom!

However, due to the restrictions imposed by the White Horse Oath, from the Han emperor to the high-ranking officials, no one dared to engage in such an operation!

It's not that there's no way to break the deadlock, but rather that the oath of the white horse has blocked that possibility.

Under the influence of the Oath of the White Horse, no one of different surnames could become king... If one had already become king and did not want to repeat the mistakes of the kings at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, then one had to grit one's teeth and do things to the extreme, pull the Han emperor down and become the emperor himself!

After reading Liu Bei's silk scroll, Gongsun Zan burned it with a candle in front of Shi Ren.

As for Yuan Shao's silk scroll, Gongsun Zan didn't even glance at it and burned it along with the scroll.

Shi Ren asked in surprise, "My lord, what is the reason for this?"

"The only one capable of bringing peace to the world is Grand Marshal Zhao."

Gongsun Zan spoke calmly, as if stating a fact: "Yuan Shao is most adept at instigating, and I fear that I might be swayed by him and do something unwise. When I return to Xuande, I will simply tell him the truth. I will tell him that the men and women of Youzhou have long suffered from border troubles. Fortunately, the Grand Marshal has cleared the clouds and brought the sun to the surface, and I will certainly do my utmost to help him, so that he may achieve fame both before and after his death."

(End of this chapter)